Our Vegan Travel Challenge Has Ended (Will We Stay Vegan?)

This week we’ve finally reached the end of our vegan travel challenge set for us by Veganuary as we travelled through Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, and as the final day came and passed by we were left with a mixture of feelings, thoughts and questions to answer.

One of the standout thoughts is of course, “Did we enjoy it?“, and the answer would most definitely was a resounding ‘yes!‘. It was great to travel in a different way, with a different thought process and different objectives. We got to see how other travelers go about their days, what thoughts they must consider and the things they must plan in order to be well prepared so that no matter the outcome of their travel plans, they’ve got something vegan to eat no matter where they are, or what time of day it is.

Lessons On Preparation

For us, one of the first lessons was this very thought on preparation, and even though we had some incredible travel tips from vegan travellers on the road right now, there was still an element of the actual doing that we still had to get used to. We had to learn what we could and could not choose to snack on, what occasions might call for us to buy some products in advance so that we’d have something for breakfast in the morning where only milk, cheese and ham constitute breakfast. We also learned quite quickly which are the best places to buy the products we need, which accidentally vegan foods we could buy from the regular supermarkets, and which parts of the town we were in had the biggest selection of Asian and Middle Eastern grocery stores.

Our second lesson was that the internet is an incredible resource for tips and recommendations for vegans, whether you’re using HappyCow for it’s huge list of vegan and vegetarian restaurants around the world complete with user submitted authentic reviews, or using Yelp, Google Maps and Foursquare (add us on Foursquare to see our recommendations) to search for vegan food in your immediate area, they almost always come out with something worth scribbling down on a free map from the tourist information office. Add on to that the personal recommendations of people via social media channels; you’re going to have tonnes of places to stop by.

Possibly the best use of the internet we’ve had was using Couchsurfing to our advantage – even more than we usually do! – and instead of surfing with locals for their unique viewpoint as a local in our new location of choice, we’ve searched for other vegans using its fantastic search function to learn from them, but also surfed with carnivores who not only ate vegan whilst we were with them, but cooked everything for us too. A real stroke of luck, of which we’re eternally grateful!

Was It Hard To Travel Vegan?

It depends. Was it hard to find things for us to eat in restaurants? At times. Was it difficult to find vegan food in supermarkets? Again, sometimes. On the whole though, we ate everyday without too much effort and without having to skip a meal. Though it took time for us to identify with which products we could and couldn’t buy from supermarkets, once we had it became quite easy to just walk in, grab what we wanted and have a picnic in the park.

The hardest part of travelling as a vegan for us was the cost, not for regular food from the supermarket, but for all of those extra things most vegans use in their diet to supplement the vitamins and minerals they might get from products they ate before changing their lifestyle, such as in our case and dropping the cheese and eggs from our vegetarian diet.

We entered around about three bio-supermarkets per city we visited over the total thirty days of the challenge and the overriding thought that came from looking at the bags of chia seeds and other such recommended goodies was that we’d never be able to travel cheaply like this. It’s almost impossible. There’s just no way that with our really simple and cheap budget style of travel that we’d be able to buy them all and still be able to keep going, and we both soon realised that if we’d have started our travels as vegans and been using these products the whole time, we’d have never completed our first year of travel.

The Reality Of Veganism And Healthy Living

From the cost and from observing the many customers that were buying all of the bio, organic, locally sourced and fair trade products we soon realised that this style of healthy living – and by association, veganism – is priced for a particular type of customer who can enjoy the finer things in life, and that not only makes us sad, but close to angers us.

Why should it be that the healthy option of maintaining a healthy diet is only for those who can afford it?

Of course there are cheaper options to be had in other stores and by buying slightly different products, but when certain products can only be found in bio-stores, it’s easy to be put into a situation where you’ve no option but to pay that price. What about those who can’t afford it? Not just us who chose to travel on a budget, but what about people on a low monthly income, people on welfare, or even single parents with kids? Why should they be priced out of buying these products?

Though we realise that some products will come at a cost due to their low product yield and cost of manufacture; when you’re looking at one identical product with six different producers all charging large sums of money just because their packaging is nicer, it doesn’t seem quite right.

Will We Stay Vegan?

This is the question most people have been asking us, and to be honest, we’ve been asking each other that every day, and as we approached the final day when we could revert to our cheese-feasting, egg-devouring vegetarian diet; we had a couple of days to go so made the most of our time in Berlin to help us decide whether or not veganism is for us.

Over the final two days of the challenge we were the guest of two fantastic eateries here in the German capital. Firstly we stopped off at Chaparro to sample their fantastic selection of Mexican food which has a selection of strictly vegan options, with my favourite vegan chorizo amongst them.

The vegan chorizo was really special, and flavoured more towards mimicking the Mexican variant of the classic Spanish spiced sausage, up against its nopalese (young cactus leaf) counterpart, it had strong competition with its strong unusual smoky taste.

On the ultimate day of the challenge we were welcomed with smiles by the kind people at Laauma, a brand new vegan cafe in the hip-and-happening culture rich, district of colouful district of Friedrichshain.

We had a lovely few hours there speaking with their bright and informative staff, finding out the reasons why two tattoo artists chose to open a 100% vegan cafe where the food is focused on a great selection of ingredients rather than relying on faux meats to make a meal.

Of their selection we really loved their smoothies, loved their unique variation of ‘chicken’ nuggets (without faux meat – ace!) which we’re tempted to return for to try again; and also their own take on vegan Nutella which they sell in jars ready to take home, which I secretly bought whilst Franca was in the bathroom, knowing that of the very few things she missed, Nutella was amongst them.

With the question still on our minds and this great food in our mouths we really started to understand and see what our final choice was going to be, that until we feel that it’s just not working, we’re going to stay vegan

Whilst we’re really against the added cost that veganism can bring with it due to its growing trendiness, and checking the ingredients of every product we pick up and are offered by kind Couchsurfing hosts and friends; now that we know the things we know about veganism – and more importantly, animal rights – there’s just no way that we could possibly un-know everything we’ve learned.

The Future

So for now we’re vegan. Of course there are some things that we kind of craved during the thirty day vegan challenge, like Nutella and cheese, when the day came that we could just switch back to our vegetarian diet and eat the cheese that was offered to us, we just didn’t feel the urge anymore and thought that we’ll just keep it up as long as it feels right.

For this site of course that might mean some changes, we may write more articles about travelling with a vegan diet and lifestyle, we might write about it from time-to-time as we were with our vegetarian diet. We just don’t know. All that we do know, however, is that we’re happy to write and share what we’ve learned and experienced, just as you’re happy for us to do so. Is that something you’d like to read about? Or you curious too, or are our travel articles enough for you?

Since day one this travel blog started for friends and family and over the years we’ve gained many new readers, of which many we now call our friends too, so as our friends, we want to know what you want to read about from our daily lives as travellers; so please tell us!

And finally, thanks again to Cela and the fantastic team at Veganuary.com for their encouragement and support during this vegan travel challenge they set for us. It’s been a fantastic learning process and we strongly recommend that you sign up for this coming January!; and also thanks to all of you for your fantastic words of advice and tips that helps us every single day.

Do you want us to keep sharing our vegan travel experiences?

54 Comments

Hey! It is awesome that you are going to continue being vegan. As a nutritionist, I just want to say a few things about vitamins. Please make sure you are getting the variety that you need. You might want to consider a nutritional multivitamin.

You need to make sure you are getting other sources of these vitamins and minerals. B12 is particularly difficult as it is ONLY found in animals and animal products. Without B12 you can get a variety of problems including a version of anemia.

Just want to make sure you are staying healthy while enjoying being vegan!
Let me know if you have any questions – before traveling, I worked in a hospital as a Dietitian, so I have answers for you!

Hi! It’s been great reading about your vegan challenge! I was backpacking in India for a year and I found being vegan there relatively easy but it’s certainly a lot harder in other parts of the world! Keep up the blogging, really enjoying searching through your site 🙂Will Hatton recently posted…50 of the best books to read on the road

Ack! I’m so late in reading this, but catching up now :). It angers me too that healthy food is like 100x more expensive than unhealthy, processed, unnatural… etc. foods. Why should we have to pay through the roof to maintain a healthy lifestyle?! I’m not vegan, but I do like to eat clean (as in organic, locally sourced, etc.) if I can afford it… but the problem is that it’s not really an affordable option! I commend your decision to stay vegan based on your support for animal rights! And I would LOVE some of that vegan Nutella!!Anna | slightly astray recently posted…Foodie Friday: Pierogarnia in Wroclaw, a love story

Travelling and eating ‘clean’ is so hard to combine together, especially as the expense is so high. Whilst you can perhaps budget for it before you travel, adjusting your diet later down the line as we’ve done is much harder to do.

You’ll have to come by Berlin and pick up some of the Nutella, but you could quite easily make it on the road with the right ingredients 🙂

A big congratulations on successfully completing the challenge! Your stance on animals rights is really admirable and inspiring. Even though I’m currently not vegan or vegetarian, I would like to hear more about your food travels. I find it really interesting to view travel from different perspectives and I personally think blogs, while they may develop well beyond updating family and friends, should still maintain a personal touch. After all, no one else is you and you make the blog what it is. If veganism/vegetarianism has become part of who you are and the way you travel, then it would only be natural to mention it and even write about it specifically from time to time. 🙂

Hopefully we’ll find the right balance between our new found love for veganism and our other travel experiences, but when there’s so much amazing food to write about, it’s hard not to get too distracted 🙂

This was a very thoughtful post. I loved the honesty and thoughts on veganism. I too often find that being vegan in the U.S, is seen as something not accessible to everyone. But in reality, many vegan foods are significantly cheaper than their animal based counter parts. Think lentils per pound vs. steak per pound! Right? But all in all I think that you will find traveling, and navigating veganism as time goes on. For me vegetarianism and now (almost always) veganism have been a slow progression with a lot of learning along the way, and as you found, it gets easier with time and experience!
Thanks for the great post.
KatieKatie recently posted…Ada’s Rice and Lentil Burgers

In fact, now that it’s been close to six weeks since we first started the challenge and went vegan, we’re not even identifying when we’re doing certain ingredient checks or hunts for vegan food, it’s just become a small part of our lives that we don’t focus on any more.

What we are focusing on are the options we have here in Berlin. It’s just so easy to walk into a cafe, restaurant or supermarket and find at least a little something (if not a lot) vegan. Having said that, we have noticed that there isn’t nearly as much choice in the supermarkets as we remember, not nearly as much as we saw during our short few weeks back in the UK earlier this year.

Wow, well done! It’s sounds like rather than being very limiting, being vegan actually made some of your food choices more interesting. Good luck!Katie Featherstone recently posted…Wandering along the beach at Canoa

Being vegan has actually brought some really fun and interesting flavours into our diet. Not to say that Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany don’t have interesting cuisines, just that people have to get creative with a vegan dish so try all sorts of interesting flavours using a local and globally inspired fusion dish.

Congratulations on your decision! I’m actually neither vegan nor vegetarian but I must say how much I enjoyed this post,.llearning about how vegans manage on their travels,what choices exist & even learning about the cost implications. I would enjoy continuing to read about your vegan travel experiences 🙂 ps vegan Nutella sounds like a great idea!shikha (whywasteannualleave) recently posted…The Dulce De Leche Diaries – Argentina’s Sweetest Treat

Guys, I’m so happy that you are still doing your vegan challenge and you have not given up yet! Great job! You’re right about the importance of preparation. I’ve been trying to eat healthy during my travels and planning my meals can keep me on track and it really saves me a lot of money! I always head to local markets and buy some fresh fruits for my snacks!Agness recently posted…Taste Of Portugal: 15 Best Desserts You Can’t Afford To Miss

While vegetarianism and veganism aren’t for me, I admire you both for committing to lifestyle choices you believe in. And you’re photos of the food have really changed my perceptions for what the cuisine can be. It’s such a shame that the fresh products and dietary supplements are so expensive, but I’m sure that will change as more people buy them. I’ve seen chia seeds pop up in non-vegan smoothie recipes so the word on their benefits is getting out!Heather recently posted…Touring Karosta Prison and Liepaja’s Secret Soviet Port

It’s great to read that these superfood products are making there way into the mainstream, and as we’ve been walking around Berlin this week and reading plenty about veganism online; it seems that lots of non-vegan restaurants and supermarkets are starting to add more vegan products to their options, which is fantastic.

Congratulations on your decision to remain vegan. Although, we’ve never ventured into the world of chia seeds, shopping in organic, big-box stores will definitely eat up our budget. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean we can’t afford it. It simply means we have to re-work our budget and sacrifice somewhere else, so that we don’t ask animals to make an ultimate sacrifice for us.

Today, actually, we’re celebrating our 2nd VEGANniversary. The cravings for cheese and milk are now non-existent, and instead, we are really excited to be in a place where we can find nut cheeses. We never thought we’d say that! We also have a container of The Vegg (http://thevegg.com/) to try 🙂

Oh, and we definitely have to return to Berlin! It’s been a decade since we lived there and all these vegan options certainly didn’t exist when we were there!Mindy & Ligeia recently posted…Mint Chocolate Brownie Vegan Ice Cream

Congratulations on your two year veganniversary! That’s fantastic, and having read your site since our time at ENP last year we’ve seen you both having some great vegan adventures, completely animal sacrifice free 🙂

I’m really curious to see what you make with The Vegg. There’s a shop here in Berlin that sells it, but we’ve not really read up on the types of recipes we can use it with. Need to do some investigating!

Great to hear that you are staying vegan! I agree, it’s not always easy and sometimes it can be disheartening to see the prices of some items but for the most part it’s cheaper than buying cheeses and meat. I make my own food a lot and when I travel I enjoy simple meals, unless I’m a city where I can just pig out on vegan food, like Victoria in British Columbia. Highly recommended, vegans won’t go hungry or get poor there..!Annika – Live Laugh Explore recently posted…A story about tourism and community development

It was really interesting to see what was easily available to us during those four weeks, but I think the most interesting aspect will be how much we learn over the coming weeks and months as we continue the lifestyle.Dale recently posted…Don’t Miss Madrid’s Design Market at El Matadero

Awesome, glad it went well overall for the guys, and well done on making it so far! Do you keep track of how much extra you spend on food with a vegan diet? I’d be really interested to know as this is one of the main reasons (+ gluten) why I’ve never made the decision to go vegan. I mean, buying chia seeds etc. once in a while and lots of nuts to supplement a vegetarian diet is expensive on its own. But equally, cheese is often really expensive too.Charlie recently posted…The Truth about Costa Rican Eco-Lodges

Good point about the expensive of replacement products compared to the products you’re dropping from your diet, especially where some more expensive products count, such as cheese.

I’m not sure about expenses. To be honest, I think they were about the same, but maybe because we got lucky and were able to cook a few times and had meals made for us whilst Couchsurfing. The only real expense that we noticed was stopping for the occasional vegan treat, like a brownie, or an ice cream.Dale recently posted…Our Vegan Travel Challenge, Week 4

Thanks a lot, Mary! It’s been really quite the fun challenge and we’d recommend it to everyone, even if they don’t go vegan; it’s just interesting to see travel (and life) from a different perspective.Dale recently posted…How We Used Reddit To Meet, Eat & Stay With A Local

Well first of all, BIG hugs, kisses, and thank you’s from the animals; and secondly, BIG hugs and kisses from us!

It can definitely be frustrating when you see that the price of vegan items is considerably higher, but we think that might also be because you are in Europe? We don’t find it very expensive being vegan at all. We spent a lot more money filling our shopping cart up with meat back in the day (sorry animals)

Congrats on your conscious change, and sticking with what your hearts and heads are telling you, and not your taste buds. Although we have never had better food than what we are eating presently. It is simply delicious, fresh, and cruelty free.

Thanks guys, not only for sending the hugs, but also for helping us along the path!

It’s been frustrating, yes, but as you told us when we last spoke; there’s plenty you can eat without having to break the bank, without having to buy all those expensive products.

Perhaps it’s just a European thing as veganism is still relatively small compared to the States on a whole, but it’s getting better. You just need to know where to go, I suppose.Dale recently posted…Don’t Miss Madrid’s Design Market at El Matadero

I loved this post 🙂 It so interesting to see the challenges and triumphs of people trying to be vegan either for a while or for a lifetime.

I don’t think being vegan is expensive at all, unless you like the fancy stuff. I rarely buy soy products or highly processed foods (the expensive stuff). The problem is that meat, dairy, eggs and other factory farming practices in Europe, are HIGHLY subsidized by the European Union, therefore the prices of animal products are often cheaper than simple vegan foods, which makes no sense when we think that in order to feed all the cows, chicken etc, millions of tons of vegetables and grains are used, which could be feeding us directly.

Anyway, we can’t fix the world, but we can make better choices. I don’t even see anything wrong with eating eggs from free chicken who will never be killed (I have 2 rescued chicken and my housemate eats their eggs ), but those are rare cases.

I love the idea of keeping rescued chickens, thought I’m so nervous around the ones that Franca’s family have! I can certainly understand the reasoning behind using their eggs, and have met some vegetarians who do the same.

This week we watched the Earthlings documentary, and whilst there was a lot of information that we already knew, it really forced home the idea that whilst we’re a long way away from fixing the world, every little change we can make individually can help, and that’s exactly what we hope to do.Dale recently posted…Create/Travel – Interview with The Travel Hack

I’ve been following your Vegan travel challenge with great interest. I’ve been slowly dropping meat from my diet. It has not been a conscious decision it just naturally happened. October is going to see me adopt a meat free month. Cannot go vegan without going vegetarian first. I’ll let you know how I get on. Well done on lasting the thirty days. The posts have been a source of inspiration to me.Steve recently posted…Rainbow – Photo of the Week

Oh wow, Steve. That’s fantastic! I’m so glad that in some small way our experience has been of interest to you as you begin to wonder for yourself how you feel about dropping meat from your diet.

Just remember, baby steps are still steps in the right direction; and don’t feel pressured to break into a run. Take October at ease, slip if you need to, as the lessons you’ll learn will very quickly teach you not just about how your body feels from a change of diet and lifestyle, but also a change of mentality towards meat.

it is so interesting you say it is much more expensive to buy organic stuff. I buy all groceries at an organic store and have been doing it for years already (while living in three different countries). I never throw stuff away and make sure to only buy what I need. Too many people buy too many groceries and throw them away when they are rotten and they think they can’t eat them anymore. In the long term this is more expensive than to buy at an organic store and to not throw anything away. It is pretty much all about caring for our planet and for ourselves etc.

But I also I truly believe in the end every person should do what feels best for themselves, otherwise everyone would become so unhappy and that wouldn’t help to make the world a better place.Dorothée Lefering recently posted…For coffee addicts: 6 espresso-based drinks

I think that a lot of people in the western world (myself included) have forgotten what it’s like to go without something. When I hear about the kinds of things mine and Francas grandparents had to eat because they had nothing but scraps and moldy bread left makes me really wonder if people truly understand how much has changed in just fifty years, how much we’re now taking our abbundace of food in the western world for granted, throwing away perfectly good food when at the same time people starve. It’s madness. And to think I was just the same five years ago makes me feel slightly sad.

Way to go guys! I know it wasn’t always easy, but it’s such a big accomplishment that you were able to keep vegan for the entire month, especially since it wasn’t exactly as easy as you initially anticipated. I’m sure most people assume that if you’re cutting out the meat that your food budget would necessarily go down, so it’s interesting to read that you found the switch from veggie to vegan a lot more costly due to the specialty goods and supplements that become so important. It’s true that in the west, a vegan lifestyle is very much one that is financially unattainable for many people, provided you actually want to stay healthy. It’s actually really frustrating being back in North America where I see that processed foods are dirt cheap, whereas buying natural whole foods are swiftly becoming priced too high for low-income individuals and families. I so miss how in Asia, the “real” food was what was cheap and if you wanted to go buy a frozen pizza or whatever, then that is what would cost you the big bucks… that is how I think it should be!

Anyway, good luck as you continue on with the veganism and I think your approach is right: do the best you can for as long as you can! I think that’s really all any of us can do.Steph (@ 20 Years Hence) recently posted…Why Not Arugam Bay?

It pains me to think about how much we spent on actually fresh food in Asia, made before our very eyes from ingredients bought that day!

Thanks a lot for the kind words. I think that as long as each and everyone of us is trying our best to do the best things for the right intentions then the world will be a better place than it currently is.Dale recently posted…Don’t Miss Madrid’s Design Market at El Matadero

lina from taipei !
on August 15, 2014 at 11:44

Hi Dale, hi Franca ! I read all your post on veganism and it was really informative, I really liked it ! I am admirative of your lifestyle and choices, since you left Taipei I also become vegetarian 🙂 I am wondering a lot about vegan diet and all your pictures made me hungry ! Thanx for sharing this experience ! Keep on writting ! Love from Taiwan and France !

Haha, I read it from the beginning 😉 it’s a great source of inspiration (and just yesterday Yiming was reading your post about buying backpacks…!)

I decided to become vegetarian because I started to realize that what I had in my plate wasn’t right… it’s been a long time that i was thinking about it but then I started to look for informations on line, watched earthling (hi Franca 😉 ) and also the speech of Gary Yourofsky… I had stomac ache since I was really young and now that I stop eating meat I feel so much better, never had pain like before, changed my life ! 😀 Miss you guys !

Earthlings is a really special film and communicates many messages that perhaps don’t always get picked up or listened to properly when people are trying to campaign against the meat, dairy or fur industry by standing in the street holding big placards. Sometimes you really must see the reality of the situation to truly understand it, and Earthlings certainly helps with that.

Awesome! I am really proud of you guys! I am really looking more and more into being vegetarian again. It is the mistreatment of the animals that really is shocking! I am not a big meat eater. I tried the vegetarian diet for a year and it wasn’t even difficult, but what I struggled with at the time were the prices! I was a student and as you say, weirdly enough vegetarian diet can be expensive at times.Marta Kulesza recently posted…PICTURE PERFECT ISLA DEL SOL

The prices actually drive me crazy, and yes, you can eat well even on a little money (if you know what you’re doing), all of the best things for keeping your diet healthy are so ridiculously priced. It’s barmy.

The industrialization of the meat industry is most of the reason that I chose to become vegetarian in the first place.Dale recently posted…Our Vegan Travel Challenge, Week 3

Good luck with your vegan challenge! I’ve been vegetarian for more than 3 years now and I’m confindent I will remain vegetarian for the rest of my life. But I think veganism is just too much for me. I love cheese, and eggs, and I don’t want to spend my days craving for things. I hope you can make it, I wish I had that strenght!Claudia recently posted…Priego de Córdoba, para no perdérselo

One thing we’re really learned is that once you’re aware of everything that goes along with being vegan and vegetarian, you really must choose what’s best for yourself, for your mind, and for your body.